Sonic Storm: Dark Tempest
by agentshadow
Summary: One night Tails wakes up to Angel Ilsand plummeting to the earth. Upon investigation he finds that not only was the master emerald stolen but Knuckles, its guardian, was severely injured. A story including all of your favorite Sonic characters.
1. Chapter 1

**Sonic Storm**

**(I do not own Sonic…Yet)**

This fic takes place 6 months after shadow the hedgehog

I am, for my story assuming Earth and Mobius to be the same planet, since that seems to be the case in most of the newer games

This is my first fanfic ever so please let me know what you think of it, I will probably add some remnants of Sonic X into this story but I'm not sure about that yet. Basically another series of evil plots by Eggman followed by an even more powerful bad guy that they all have to work together to defeat, classic Sonic style story, enjoy!

**Episode 1: Knuckles Dilemma**

Black doom was defeated and the threat of the black arms was over, "He did it!" Amy Rose shouted.

Sonic smirked "He sure did."

Knuckles turned around to see Eggman slowly sneaking away towards his eggart "Hey," He yelled "Get back here you creep!" he ran off chasing Eggman.

Shadow stood in the observation room of the ARK watching all the debris that used to be the black comet. He looked down at the picture in his hand. It depicted his creator, Dr. Gerald Robotnik, posing in his large leather chair his granddaughter Maria clinging to his shoulder. "Good-bye forever," he nearly whispered; sadness heavy in his voice "Shadow the Hedgehog".

Far away outside of any reality in the space between spaces, in the place where not even time and space exist; there is nothing, with one exception. A sphere of crystallized elemental energy floated, chains made of the same energy sharply slanted toward its heart. Inside a being was imprisoned unable to even move, a being that had nearly enslaved the universe.

But he could feel the warping of time and space he could feel his prison weakening and for the first time in ten-thousand years his lips parted in a smile; his wait was nearly over.

**6 months later…**

Miles Prowler a.k.a. Tails awoke suddenly, rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to the dark. What a terrible nightmare, he shoved it from his mind; he didn't want to think about it. He turned on his bedside light and squinted at its brightness, he yawned and smacked his lips, jumped out of his bed and walked to the elevator. The metal doors closed and opened again a moment later into blackness, tails stepped forward reaching to his right and thumbed a switch turning on all the lights on this floor.

He ignored his living room and marched into the kitchen to the sink and filled a paper cup with water, drinking it to wet a dry throat. He walked out into his "office" or so Amy jokingly called it. He had needed some money for supplies recently and had sold a design to hexagon, that allowed propeller operated planes to assume a jet engine mode if the propeller malfunctioned. The CEO had bought it without a second glance. After his necessities had been taken care of he had bought himself an oak wood desk and a red leather chair to use for working on new designs.

He felt a shockwave and looked out the window to see water rising over part of Mystic Ruins he watched a moment longer and saw Angel Island sitting in the bay of mystic ruins. Tails eyes went wide there was only one reason that Angel Island would have landed in the bay; someone stole the master emerald.

Tails immediately ran down to his workshop getting into one of his newer cyclone models he pressed the remote release for the hanger door, this also brought his plane up a level to the hanger itself. He turned on the engine, engaged jet mode and flew straight for Angel Island.

Big was sleeping peacefully under the stars, his constant companion Froggy nestled in his soft belly fur, sleeping as well. Then a loud crash happened and big woke up. He saw water rushing towards him.

"AAAAAHHHHH!!!!" He yelled " Froggy, we'd better get outa here!"

"Ribbit." Froggy replied.

Big ran a few hundred yards and looked back. Although he didn't seem very smart he was more intelligent that everyone thought. He saw a large looming island suddenly in the middle of the bay.

"That's Knuckles' island!" Big exclaimed "We'd better go check it out."

Tails landed in the clearing that housed the emerald shrine, sure enough the Master emerald was nowhere to be found; neither was Knuckles. He heard a crashing sound behind him and turned poised in a fighting stance.

Big came crashing out of the trees yelling his fishing pole held high and stopped.

"It's only Tails, Froggy." He said slowly.

"What are you doing here?" tails asked.

"We saw Knuckles' island fall from the sky, and we came to help him if we could."

Tails actually liked that answer, he knew better than most what big was capable of and would appreciate his company while he looked for Knuckles.

"Well I don't see knuckles anywhere," tails said "why don't we search for him together."

"O.K." big replied

They searched around the ruined shrine and found nothing. Then they began systematically searching the forest beyond.

"What's this?" big asked suddenly stopping on the trail.

Tails looked at what big was pointing to, a slick red liquid; fresh blood. They followed the trail of blood to a ravine in the bottom of which they found Knuckles.

He was bleeding from several deep cuts in his arms and abdomen, he had several broken ribs and shattered teeth; and he was totally unconscious.

"He's losing blood fast!" Tails exclaimed "we've got to get him somewhere safe now!"

Normally slow and somewhat retarded big lost that facade completely, he picked up Knuckles' limp body tenderly

"Let's get to your plane fast." He said no longer in the slow unconcerned voice he usually used. He normally didn't care what was happening around him seemingly oblivious to any threats, but he counted Knuckles as one of his friends and that made this a special occasion

Tails stared wide eyed at the purple cat in utter surprise for a moment, then nodded and they both ran as fast as they could toward the plane (tails flying most of the way of course). On the way there Big placed a large cloth around knuckles ribcage to stem the blood flow. He had made it to store fish in, but this was more important.

When they got to the plane Big climbed into the back seat and tails in the front, the cyclone had a little trouble lifting Big's weight but they managed a straight flight to tails' workshop.

Sonic the hedgehog, Hero of Earth and Mobius, lover of Chili dogs and hater of interrupted sleep, which he seemed to be getting more and more of lately. Darn that phone! Sonic swore he was going to smash that thing one of these days. He reached over glancing at the clock as he did so.

"Look," he said into the receiver "You'd better have a _really_ good reason for getting me up at two in morning or I swear I'm gonna spin dash you to – "

"SONIC!" the familiar voice of Tails yelled back through the phone "It's Knuckles! He's injured really bad looks like several broken ribs and whole lot of cuts and bruises, he's been losing blood for I don't know how long." He said clearly panicked.

"What happened?!" Sonic asked

"I don't know." Came the reply "But someone definitely stole the Maser Emerald."

"And beat the crap out of Knuckles, Where are you?" Sonic asked almost too quickly for the young fox on the other end of the phone to catch.

"Huh? I'm at my house."

"Good, Be there in a flash." Sonic said as he dashed out of his house, not even taking the time to hang up the phone.

Sonic dashed across Station Square as break neck speeds, it was good thing that Station Square didn't have many night time activities because Sonic would have been turning over cars trucks and anything else he passed if there were, actually he was already doing that but he liked to think it was better than if the cars were moving.

He barely noticed when he passed Sam Thorndyke (AKA Sam Speed) as he was giving a man a parking ticket. As soon as Sam saw the blue blur he was in his car racing after it.

Sonic took a lot more notice when Sam's red race car pulled up next to him, he frowned he did _not_ have time for this, of course his pride would never let Sam win a race with him _ever_! Sonic succumbed to said pride and dashed forward smiling and patting his buttocks.

"Ooooh that hedgehog is really asking for it this time" Sam said as his finger pressed down on the special nitro button he had in his car.

Sonic stepped aside as Sam's car raced forward its wheels and flames glowing blue. Sonic frowned again "C'mon Sam Nitrox fuel again, this is really starting to get old."

Sam was smiling as his victory when he heard a tapping on his window, he glanced over to see Sonic making faces at him. _I should have known it wouldn't that easy by now_. He thought as Sonic took a sharp right turn towards the Mystic ruins area of the Mobius continents.

_I also should've known that Sonic had good reaon for running like a maniac at this time of night._ Sam thought to himself as he forced his car to turn around and make the turn following Sonic' s quickly retreating form.

Only a short ten minutes after his call to Sonic Tails saw lights approaching his house red and white and blue, Police, Great. He heard a knocking on his door after the lights came to a stop and opened it to find Sonic, and to his mild surprise, Sam Speed.

"So, what's up?" Sam asked

"You didn't tell him!" Tails asked bewildered

Sonic frowned "I was a little busy ah,"

"Mopping the floor with my face." Sam said a little irritated that he had lost the race after all.

Tails shook his head he did not have time to try and make amends between the two rivals. "Follow me." He said

They followed him into his living room where a beaten bloody knuckles lay on the couch, Big the cat tending to his open wounds.

"Whoa!" Sam said bewildered that Knuckles, probably the strongest mobian out there, could be so thrashed up "What happened to him?" he asked

Tails looked up into Sam's face "We don't know for sure yet, and we probably won't until he wakes up, but…" he pointed out the window towards Angel island floating in the bay, problem was it wasn't floating on air; it was floating on water!

"That's…not good" Sonic said looking in fear at the small land mass now right beside mystic ruins.

Knuckles woke with a start and immediately sat up, to which he was very regretful. Pain seared up his sides as broken ribs scraped each other and wounds opened all over his abdomen. He lived with it though, he was the strongest of any Mobian and he was the Guardian of the master emerald, he could handle anything.

It was only after the pain was dealt with that he realized where he was, A room very similar to Tail's living room. He looked around in surprise, he had expected to be on Angel Island, Tails had just dropped him off after all. But that didn't explain the pain, why did he have broken ribs, why was he bleeding, and above all where was he?

He heard someone in the next room, probably a kitchen as he heard the sounds of cereal being poured into a bowl, and milk being poured into the cereal. He was actually a bit surprised to see Tails walk out into the room holding a cereal bowl and spoon in his hands, maybe he had renovated recently.

"Feeling better?" Tails asked him as he sat down beside him on the couch. Tails wasn't any where near as irritating as Sonic, always trying to get him to go on yet another adventure to save the world. If it weren't for the fact that the kid practically worshiped the ground Sonic walked on he wouldn't be irritating at all.

"I guess, what happened?" he asked

Tails frowned and was obviously upset "We were hoping you could tell us." He said.

_We, us_ Knuckles wondered a moment, it was only then that he noticed the big purple cat sleeping on the floor on the other side of the room. A green frog was stirring on it's belly and it opened it's eyes staring at him. "Ribbit" it said and Big opened his eyes and sat up his ears perking up and making him look a lot like a rabbit.

"Good morning" Big said "Are you better yet?" he said cocking his head to the side for a moment and staring at nothing in particular.

"Well I'm not dead if that's what you mean." Knuckles said " although I'm still wondering why I'm here, I just got back to Angel Island for heaven's sake!"

Big tilted his head to the side again a blank expression coming over his face, Tails raised an eye ridge. Knuckles could see that what he just said had completely confused his hosts but he didn't know why; after all Tails had just landed him on Angel Island a few days ago.

Tails stared a second longer "What are you talking about Knuckles, we haven't been to your island in six months!" he said in an upset voice.

"What!" Knuckles said "You just dropped me off three days ago!" he said starting to get angry, it was one thing to claim an extra day or two but six months! That was an obvious lie. "I can't believe that you would make up such a lie like that tails." Knuckles said in a condescending tone

Tails face looked astonished and he got up off of the couch gritting his teeth. "I'm not lying!" he said.

Knuckles took a moment to register this, looking into Tails eyes he could tell that the fox was telling the truth, and that he really felt hurt by Knuckles accusation; but he was sure he had been dropped off just three days ago.

There was a knock at the door, shaking knuckles attention away from the argument. Tails went to answer it and no sooner did the sound of door hinges moving stop Sonic was standing in the living room.

"Hey, You're awake, but you don't seem to be doing to much better other than that I see."

"Hey!" Big spoke again addressing the blue hedgehog's disregard for the work he had done to keep Knuckles alive.

Since Knuckles could find a way to blame just about anything on the azure speedster he immediately rushed into an interrogation.

"What happened to me Sonic? Last thing I know I'm finally being returned to Angel Island after helping you smash that Robotic clone of yours and know I'm here, What have you gotten me into this time?!"

Tails had re-entered the room by now and all were staring at the red echidna as though he had just accused Dwain Johnson of having a crush on Vin Deisel.

"What?" the crimson guardian asked in surprise.

Sonic was the first to find his voice "Last time we fought Metal Sonic was over a year ago dude." He said

Tails was next "I think we have more to worry about than your broken bones, you've got amnesia."

Amy Rose was not in a good mood she had been trying to call Sonic all morning and all she ever got was a busy signal, who could he be talking to for the last three hours, it just wasn't like him at all. She was storming down the street towards his small house when Sam Speed pulled up beside her.

"Good morning Amy." He said

"Good morning Sam." She replied, "Have you seen Sonic this morning?" she asked him.

"Uh, no actually but I'd imagine he'd be at Tails' house." Sam said matter of factly.

"Why would he be at Tails' house at this time of day?" she huffed

Sam raised an eyebrow "You don't know?" he asked.

Amy shook her head trying to figure out if there was anything special going on today.

"You didn't watch the news this morning?" Sam asked again.

Amy looked at him frustrated "No, why, should I have?"

Sam sighed "Get in the Car, I'll tell you on the way." He said opening the passenger side door for her. Amy hesitated then walked around the car and got in. Before she even had her seat belt buckled Sam was racing down the street.

"Okay," he said "Make a long story short, I was giving this guy a parking ticket when your boyfriend whizzed right past me, naturally I went after him."

"Naturally." Amy interrupted

"I'm going to ignore that comment. Anyway I chased him a bit and it turned into one of our typical races, he headed towards Tails' house and I followed we got there to find out that Knuckles had been beat up really bad and Angel Island had fallen out of the sky, and you know what that means."

Amy's eyes went wide "The Master Emerald!" she said.

It was only about fifteen minutes before the two of them arrived at Tails' house/workshop. Tails didn't have a driveway so they just parked at the bottom of the hill. A jeep was also there with the Chaotix detective agency's logo on the side, odd.

They walked up the hill and rang the ornate doorbell and they heard the chimes go off inside.

"Who is it now?" they heard Knuckles say from inside.

"Sound's like he's awake." Sam said under his breath, Amy couldn't help but smile, Sam and Knuckles did not like each other much at all. "I think I'll be going now." Sam said hading back to his car.

Just then Tails opened the door "Amy, Sam!" he said "Come in, Knuckles is awake now and boy has he had doozey!"

Sam stood there for a moment "I was just leaving." He said.

"Yeah you better be you stupid oaf." Knuckles said when he heard Sam's voice, Tails face scrunched up in frustration.

"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that Knuckles." Sam said "After all you're not worth bothering right now."

"What!" Knuckles yelled "I'm fine, bring it you son of a – oof!" Knuckles said as some one stopped him in the middle of it.

"No!" Big's voice came from inside "You need to rest."

"Get off me you – AAAGH!" Knuckles yelled in pain.

Amy was trying her best not to laugh at him even though she was still outside.

"Go on and get going Sam, I'm sure you have speeders to catch." She said cheerfully.

"Yeah." Sam said as he turned to leave.

Tails was just shaking his head, his namesakes drooping to the ground, Amy could tell that he was distressed, and judging by the wrinkles under his eyes he had not gotten enough sleep lately.

"Hey, Why don't you go to bed and I'll play the hostess for awhile okay?" she said, again quite cheerfully.

Tail's perked up and his tails jumped off the ground "Oh Thank you!" he said "I really appreciate it, just let me take you over to see Knuckles first."

Amy was expecting to see another beat and broken hero, like many she had seen before. She could stomach a lot more than most people gave her credit for, she had seen Sonic, Knuckles, Tails sometimes, and even the Chaotix after some of their worst battles. She was expecting to see a bloody gory mess, she was surprised therefore to see what seemed to be an echidna shaped mummy laying on Tails' couch.

Knuckles was wrapped nearly head to toe in bandages only his face and hands were free of them. He actually looked somewhat pathetic compared to the "tough – guy" façade that he usually tried to portray.

Sonic was in the room pacing, probably because Big had decided that it was his job to properly take care of Knuckles and was not allowing anyone else to touch him; and unfortunately not even Knuckles himself was that strong.

"Good morning Sonic." Amy said making Sonic aware of her presence. Sonic visibly drooped a bit, Amy knew that he didn't really like having her around because she always wanted to be with him, and he didn't want to slow down enough to have a girlfriend. Amy knew this, but it was okay with her, she was sure that one day if she kept trying that she would win her blue hero's heart.

"Hey there Amy." Sonic said in a half – hearted attempt to appease her.

"I'm going to head upstairs and get some sleep for awhile now." Tails said interrupting the Sonic – Amy conversation, much to Sonic's delight and Amy's dismay.

"Yeah actually I was woken up way to early this morning, I think I'll go home and get some rest too." Sonic said dashing off through the door.

Espio finally opened his mouth and spoke after watching the discussion, Amy hadn't noticed him before now, he was the only member of the Chaotix there.

"I have fulfilled my duty as well, Knuckles seems fine in Big's capable hands." He said beginning to leave.

Amy stopped him momentarily "I never thought that the Chaotix and Knuckles would be friends, how did you come into caring for him so much as to take time out of your day to come see him when he has been injured?" she asked.

Espio looked at her somewhat begrudgingly "Why don't you ask him?" he said. And with that he was gone.

All that was left was Big, Knuckles and herself, she sighed and plopped herself down on the floor propping her back against the wall. Knuckles silently watched her for a few moments the he rolled back onto his back and lay there quietly.

Big sat near Knuckles watching over him and making sure that he didn't reopen his wounds, Amy thought that this was a somewhat boring start to her day.

"What?!" Knuckles screamed at the top of his injured lungs "and why wasn't this important enough to tell me before?"

Tails shifted nervously before answering, addressing Knuckles feet rather than his face "Well with all of your broken bones and everything I thought it would be bad to add another burden to you right now." He finally said.

Knuckles gritted his teeth and glared like death at the amber fox for a moment, and then his expression softened. "The Master Emerald is my responsibility kid," he said in a quieter tone "It is never an extra burden to tell me what's happened to it, now who do you think stole it?"

"Well," tails said a little more confident now "There's the usual suspects."

Knuckles narrowed his eyes and scowled "Eggman." He said with disgust

Eggman sat in his enormous control chair watching several screens attentively, He had constructed this new base in the Caribbean Islands and even the United States didn't know about it. He actually impressed himself this time, he thought that this base would be found out for sure, it was supposed to be a distraction from the real base he was building else ware.

His fingers danced over the controls, pressing a series of buttons and bringing up a new robot design. "Egg – Incinerators sounds like a fitting name for this one." He said

"New designation acquired uploading…" a monotonous computer voice said.

Eggman smiled he would have ten thousand of these new Egg – Incinerators completed within a six month period, then he could begin construction on his ultimate base. He looked over the designs to see if there were any flaws, but it turned out being scientifically perfect as always.

Dr. Eggman laughed his signature laugh "There's nothing you can do to stop me now Sonic, These new Robots are going to be too hot for even you to handle."

Decoe, one of Eggman's personal servant robots entered the room from behind him.

"Sir, Fang is waiting outside he has brought what you asked for."

The Doctor smiled an evil smile "Good, Let him in."

A few moments later and Fang appeared nearby the Master Emerald in tow "I should charge you double just for makin' me drag that hunk o' rock 'cross half a continent." He said with a heavy Australian accent

.

Fang was a weasel with purple fur on his back and sides and cream colored fur over his belly, he wore a canvas hat and his tail made a ninety degree turn half way down it's length. His most prominent features though were his flaxen yellow eyes and his namesake, a three inch fang that jutted out of his mouth over his bottom lip.

"Be thankful I even chose to pay you at all weasel." Dr. Eggman said in irritation "I could've easily had one of my robots kill you and take the Emerald, saving myself the money."

Fang's eye's narrowed "I guess it's a good thing that were honest men then isn't it?" he asked jokingly.

"Indeed." Eggman said handing the purple furry a briefcase, "You'll find the other half of the payment in there." He said.

The weasel opened the case and inspected the money to make sure it was real. "Good doin' business with ya' mate au revior." He said as he vacated the premises.

Eggman approached the Master Emerald, running his hand across it's perfectly smooth edges, and smiled. Soon not even the pooled might of all his empire's enemies would hold a candle to his might. This was the last piece he needed to finish his ultimate creation.

*falls over and falls asleep*

I hope you all liked, this is the first chapter of my first fanfiction and I seriously revised it from my original version. I was going to erase all of Knuckles memory of who his friends were but decided that that was going a little too far, I was also going to have Metal Sonic be the one who hired fang to steal the Master Emerald, but opted for Eggman instead. Don't worry Metal Sonic will be a major character later on.

I only have one request, if you have to complain about my story at least tell me how you think it could be done better believe me I'll at least consider it and see if it could be done. I need some info on Fang though I don't know much about him, nor do I know much about the metallix which I would like to incorporate later on as well so any info would be helpful.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sonic Storm**

**(I do not own sonic etc.)**

**Introduction **

**Episode 2: Enter the Eggman Empire**

It was beautiful day in Station Square, the kind of day that just makes you want to sit still in a park somewhere and enjoy nature. Amy Rose was doing just that as she sat on a bench in Station Square City Park reading her latest sci-fi find. Amy found it best to enjoy nature while enjoying a good science fiction book; often time science fiction book revolved around interplanetary war and destruction, It helped her not to take the beauty of nature for granted. There always seemed to be some mad man out there who wanted to destroy the world, Amy knew that the many comforts that nature had could be wiped out in an instant by someone with enough power.

She shook her head, although it was good to enjoy nature sometimes she wondered if she took it too far. She sighed, how she wished that Sonic would slow down long enough to enjoy the beautiful flowers and trees and birds with her. Just as she was thinking this a humming bird landed on a nearby leaf, she smiled Mother Nature always knew how to appease.

And for some reason Amy now heard Espio's voice in her head _"Why don't you ask him?"_ he had said in answer to her inquiry about the history of Knuckles and the Chaotix. She hadn't and she wondered now if it had been the right thing to do, she really wondered why Vector would care enough to send a member of the finacialy floundering organization to check on the crimson echidna, she never thought that he considered Knuckles his friend.

And Espio he seemed to come only grudgingly, some code of honor binding him against his will. Amy sighed, she knew that the easiest way was probably to ask Vector, but she didn't want to take up time he needed to keep the Chaotix afloat, he was probably hard at work right now.

Vector was lounging on his favorite couch, gold piled high on each end, a female crocodile lounged opposite him as he told great stories of the Chaotix's adventures. He souped up the details a bit to make himself look a little better, but he was sure that the others wouldn't mind. He was interrupted occasionally by the females comments of "Really?" and "Oh Vector, You're so brave." And "Hey Vector wake up!" strange that last one didn't sound very feminine.

Vector opened his eyes, sat up and yawned. Espio had obviously just walked in as the door was still swinging a little, he now stood at the other side of Vector's desk.

"You know," Vector said somewhat disappointed "You just interrupted a beautiful thing."

Espio rolled his eyes "Oh I'm sure I did, but your fantasies don't help us pay the rent you big green oaf."

"Hey!" Vector said angrily "I know your upset that I picked you to go give Knuckles our condolences, but that's no reason to call me names; besides you two really need to forgive each other."

Espio fairly snarled "That doesn't change the fact that there is _still_ a $1,500 bill on your desk."

At this point Charmee burst into the room "–"

"Hey Charmee, slow down!" both Vector and Espio said at once

"Whoa, that sounded weird," Charmee said as he slowed down "I didn't know you guys could do that."

"Ahem," Espio butted in "You were going to tell us something."

"What? Oh yeah," Charmee said hastily "I figured out how we can pay our rent."

Vector chuckled "This ought to be rich." He said

"Let's hear it." Espio said, a hint of sarcasm in his voice

Charmee put on his biggest smile, grinning ear to ear "It's brilliant!" he said

Sonic wished he could just work out like a normal eighteen-year-old mobian sometimes; seriously this was getting so boring. He spin-dashed into a big mobian rhino as he tried to rob a bank, knocking him unconscious. Grabbing the bags of money he threw them back behind the counter and turned his attention to the big rhino's buddies.

There were three mobians; a lizard, a raccoon, and a bird of some kind; and two heavily armed humans. Sonic looked around to see if he needed to shout "Everybody get down" or not, since everyone was already hiding under a table or a counter he just went for an attack.

The two humans were definitely the most dangerous of the five as they were armed to the teeth with just about every weapon he could imagine. He dashed past the first one tripping him with his foot, Bullets ricocheted off the walls and ceiling as he fell pulling the trigger of his automatic.

Sonic dashed over the prone form stripping him of his side arms and grenades. By now the other human had him in his sights and the mobians were closing in on him, these guys were pretty fast for petty thieves.

The bird took off and flew downward towards him as the lizard lunged towards Sonic's throat with a knife. Sonic watched the two of them collide from the other sided of the room, but had little time to rest as the other human opened fire.

Now Sonic hated guns, he hated everything about them, but he didn't mind smoke grenades, and it just so happened that the downed thief had had a few. Smoke filled the room as Sonic dashed to the other human and knocked him unconscious with a punch to the temple. His attention then turned to the two mobians only to find that they had left and taken the money with them.

"Think you can escape the fastest thing alive huh?" Sonic said smirking

Sonic shot out the bank doors and up the skyscraper across the street, nearly knocking over a small army of people that had gathered around to see what was happening. Putting his hand over his eyes to block the sun Sonic spotted his quarry not a quarter mile away slinking through an alley. "Why do they always corner themselves in an alley?" Sonic thought to himself as he dashed back down the glass tower.

Dr. Eggman smiled as he pulled on the red and white lever to his right, he felt the room shudder a bit as his robot launched. Eggman keyed his Mic. "Jetstorm, Sonic has been sighted in southern Station square chasing the bandits I hired, keep him occupied for me." The robot turned and Rocketed towards Earth in response.

Sonic turned the corner and met the two mobians head on, his foot tripped up the bluebird, and a solid elbow to the head stopped the lizard cold. Before he could turn to interrogate the bluebird an explosion ripped through the air, Sonic could feel heat behind him. He looked towards the skies and saw a red and gold, jet-like robot with a familiar face painted on it's side.

"Eggman!" Sonic said balefully, spreading his feet he began to loop chaos energy within his body in preparation for a spindash. Sonic curled into a ball gathering more energy and finally shot like a missile straight towards the offending, tin headed robot.

Sonic bounced and groaned as he discovered that the robot's armor was thicker than he had expected, just like Eggman to through a curve ball. "You wanna play rough?" he said circling around for another shot.

He never got to make contact several red and white jets with the government "G" on their sides opened up with missiles and blew it out of the sky. Sonic's quills were singed as he just barely avoided the explosion.

"Hey watch where you're shooting!" he yelled as the planes came down for a landing.

The planes transformed into cars (one of tails designs, and one of very few that managed to find it's way into GUN hands) and came to a screeching halt. Two white ones and one red one, Sonic knew who the pilots were before they even stepped out.

"Heh, how ya doin' Sam?" Sonic asked with a smirk.

Sam removed his flight helmet as he stepped out of the red car "What no 'thank you Sam for saving my life?" he said smiling.

Sonic half frowned "First of all you didn't save my life, you stole my target, second, since when do I tell YOU thanks?" he said.

Sam sighed "Well it was worth a try anyway. So what do have for me?" he asked.

Sonic pointed at the lizard trapped beneath rubble "Him."

"Great a lizard, as if Vector wasn't bad enough." Was Sam's reply.

The Lizard's face turned red with anger, his eyes flitted between Sam and Sonic, who was frowning at the human's last remark. Sam approached the Lizard and began examining the rubble to see about how to move it. The Lizard stared at him for several awkward seconds then his eyes returned to Sonic, but the anger was gone out of his face, replaced by guilt, or sadness Sonic couldn't tell which.

"Well," Sam said standing "He's going to be stuck there for a little bit, I'll get the rest of the guys down here and see if we can lift it." He sighed in frustration.

"I'll let the mayor know what happened," Sonic said "I'm sure he'll be able to deal with it." With that the blue hero zoomed off to the city center, leaving Sam wondering how much larger the city dept was going to get after this; well, at least Eggman didn't take out the hole block this time.

"Curse that confounded hedgehog!" Eggman yelled in anger "Now I wont get that money, I need those funds!"

Most people didn't really think about all the effort that went into making his personal army of metal minions, it's not like he just materialized them out of thin air. He needed materials for his robots, sometimes very rare minerals or metals for the more specialized ones, like those he was working on now. All those things cost him money, and since he was considered a terrorist and had yet to gain a big enough hold on earth to make a country he could not gain or spend money by legal means.

Eggman had a large group of mercenaries that gathered needed materials and intel on political figures. That's where the money came in, he had to pay these mercenaries to do their jobs and they were quite stingy about money. Not to say that he feared any of them on a physical level (his robot army was more than capable of defeating a few small time thugs) but if he failed to deliver, his "street cred" would go down and less mercenaries would be willing to work for him. And mercenaries hated counterfeit money, robbing Eggman of an easy way out.

The would be dictator rubbed the stubble on his chin while he sat thinking, the best way to gain the needed funds would likely be by establishing someplace on earth that would be considered an independent nation, said nation could print it's own currency and be actively involved with world trade, weather the superpowers liked it or not. But he didn't have the funds to launch a campaign against enough of the world to gain a permanent foothold.

Eggman smiled as an idea dawned on him "I know exactly what I can do."

To nobody's great surprise the mayor sanctioned the repairs necessary; grumbling and griping the whole way about getting stuck running the city that Eggman's greatest foe inhabited. Sam wondered briefly if this would affect his paycheck, after all he had bills to pay too.

Sonic had of course reported the damages as though they were nothing important, which had put the mayor in a particularly bad mood, he grumbled a bit more under his breath as he was writing something down.

"Sometimes I wonder why fate assigned me this post." He said loud enough to hear, "Why am I supposed to care for the city inhabited by Eggman's greatest foe."

"This is gold!" Vector said "I'm just surprised that Charmee found it."

"Hey!" the little bee exclaimed

Espio sat, a bit embarrassed that Charmee of all people had been the one to finally find them some work.

Vector read the wanted poster aloud: "Rick Buliss, Mobian Rhino; subject is considered armed and dangerous; reward $15,000! Ca-ching!"

"Oh brother." Espio said as dollar signs virtually replaced the mobian crocodile's pupils.

"ItoldyaItoldyaItoldyaItoldya!" Charmee exclaimed

"Yeah," Espio said "now where do we find him?"

There were very few patrons in the small bar on the corner of 8th street and Patton Blvd. There was a man in a cheap suit drinking his fifth bottle of beer, probably had a bad day. There were two mobians, a duck and a lion, and a rough looking human with tattooed arms at a table in the corner. Lastly there was a purple weasel with a kink in his tail, wearing a canvas hat sitting at the bar itself. His flaxen yellow eyes scanned the room and locked on the bartender as he returned from the back with his second drink.

Fang set a hundred dollar bill on the bar "Know where I can find some fast wheels around here?" he asked.

The bartender, a big hairy human male, eyed the bill suspiciously then looked at Fang with a smile "You gonna have to do better than that." He said with a new jersey accent. Fang returned the smile setting another two hundreds on the bar.

The Bartender picked up the bills and leaned into the weasel's ear "Sixteenth street and Libons, there's a night club," he whispered "yer lookin' fer a guy named Buliss he's a big black rhino, usually wears a suit, runs the black market 'round 'ere."

"Thanks" Fang said flashing his namesake, he got up from the bar and left pulling his hat bit further in front of his eyes.

Uuuugh! For those of you who were waiting for a second chapter, I'm sorry I took so long, a lot of crap happened to me lately, not the least of which was losing my computer for a while, and also losing internet acsess to a rootkit (nasty little bugs) that ruined my computer for even longer. Thank God for jump drives and external hard drives!

Anyway review and tell me what you like and don't like (BTW I could really use some beta readers.)


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